1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a small animal litter box comprising a first tray with a perforated bottom wall for carrying litter material, and a second tray situated under the first tray for receiving freely dropping urine and particles that have passed through the perforated bottom wall of the first tray.
2. Description of the Related Art
A small animal litter box composed of two tray is disclosed in DE 41 27 635 A1. In the known litter box the two trays have identical circumferential walls with a truncated conical shape. This enables placing the first tray telescopically in the second tray, which is intended to stand with its bottom directly on the floor and thus carry the first tray. The perforated bottom wall has relatively small holes with a diameter of a few millimeters to permit drainage of urine from the first tray to the second tray, whereas all solid substances present in the first tray are to be prevented from passing the holes.
A problem of the known litter box according to DE 41 27 835 is that its stands relatively unstable on the floor due to the conical shape of the trays. This results in the risk of the small animal, for example a cat, or a human tipping over the litter box so that its contents is spread outside the litter box.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,274 discloses a small animal litter box that likewise is composed of an upper tray with a perforated bottom wall and a lower tray for receiving urine. In this case the upper tray is provided with a sideboard extending downwardly from the upper confining edge of the tray past the perforated bottom wall. As a result a space for the lower tray is defined between the sideboard, the perforated bottom wall and the floor, when the upper tray is placed on a floor. By means of the sideboard this known small animal litter box stands stable on the floor. Between the perforated bottom wall and the lower tray there is placed a liquid absorbing material. A locking device engages the two trays so that the liquid absorbing material is pressed against the perforated bottom wall. Thus, solid material can not pass through the perforated bottom wall down into the lower tray.